A Slave's Freedom

Hunger gnaws at my stomach, sending jolt after jolt of pain searing through my body. I grimace and stumble up against the gorge's lifeless husk. A swift wind blows down the passage, sending shivers down my spine. The sense of death lurks in the shadows of the night, making me think of the darkest of thoughts. I know that I'll die out here if I can't escape. I'll be a carcass without a story, a carcass that left its best friend to run out alone, a carcass that should rot for trying to eat her too.

Leaning against the stone walls, I take a brief breather. I look up at the sky and see how those stars twinkle. Rainbow Dash did not lie; it's beautiful here. The stars flicker and brighten as if they were talking to each other about each others' time in the sky. This light show though forms a familiar face, a familiar smile, and some familiar memories. She smiles like that. She smiles so wide when I was around, and she would twirl her hair with her fingers. Momma would tell my sister that playing with your hair is like playing with your food. I miss them both.

I miss my sister especially. She's like me, both now and then. Before she was alive, and now she is a carcass. I want to believe that she's alive, but every waking breath Master has tells me of my sister's death. I've had dreams too: her body dragging across the earth before being sucked of all the life in her with one swift crack of a bone. Another has her being executed by gunfire. Another has her being killed by exhaustion of working in the fields for the first time. The list could go on, but all of them are horror stories now. I cannot imagine living without truly knowing her whereabouts. It plagues me every night in my sleep.

But now? I wonder of other things too.

Am I even on Earth anymore? I know Rainbow Dash calls it Equestria, but it just feels like Earth, but better. There isn't a plantation in her description of the world. There isn't a white man telling a colored man he's black or ignorant. I'm not a color, nor is she. She is a pony named Rainbow Dash, and I'm just a Northern Mississippi slave named Dyson. Her life revolves around her talent, family, and friends, while my whole life revolves around being a slave with a family being held by a white man whose field needs sowing. But now, after what feels like a week of being away from the farm has me wondering if I am even a slave there anymore. I say I'm free, other times I'm not. I hear my Master's voice in my head telling me I'm just an escaped slave. I must be free then.

But I'm not. There's this gorge, my Master's voice, and then there's Equestria, where talking ponies, eels the size of several plantations put together, gorges that are almost inescapable, and things I have not even explored yet; they are all tightly knit into one package. Maybe when I find Rainbow Dash and apologize I can ask her if she'll show me around. Maybe she will say we're friends, and that we can snug without the thoughts of being afraid of me, and the thoughts of me eating her to the bone. Maybe she can explore with me, searching the world and meeting new things. Learning, it's something I like to do.

With one last breath of rest, I push off the gorge wall and continue my journey forward. There's no stopping this train, so I might as well continue, right?

"Rainbow Dash!" I yell, hoping she'd hear me.

My voice replies back to me in a faded, distant echo. I sigh and move on.

Move on to greener pastures.

It's sunny out. It's nice. I know that he's gone chasing after me, probably stopped his crazy hunger or whatever it is, but I don't want him to chase me. I want him to be honest with himself. I want him to be honest with me too.

After walking far enough, I sit and wait. It's inevitable. He'll come around the corner, tell me how sorry he is, then moments later, he'll grab me and try to bite me. His hunger is a monster. He isn't, I know that. If I had to describe Dyson to somepony, it would be that he is kind, caring, loyal, and someone to be able to depend on.

When he's hungry though... his mind goes other places.

Looking up at the stars, I see a face. It's familiar. She smiles at me, and smiles at the other girls too. She's a little filly, one that adores me so. She wants to fly someday, up in the stars too. I told her I do that a lot, and not because I am able to. For me, flying at night is a luxury, a stress reliever, a place to rest and contemplate over a day of saving the world from villains with attitude, or dealing with drama that always revolves around me. Just knowing that drama is mine to hold makes my tail flick a pile of rocks and scatter them. Anger soars in me, while happiness rockets to the ground. Stress gains speed in my heart, while calm, gentle moments of rest feel like nightmares.

This moment is one of them. It's a nightmare. It's not real. I'm just sitting here, hungry, waiting. I don't want to wait, but I have to. He's chasing me, but I need him. He's hungry, but I'm hungry too. He's injured, and I'm injured too.

I shake my head and let my feathers loose.

All this stress is driving me crazy. And it's totally not cool.

My voice has become hoarse after calling out to her so much.

"Rainbow..."

I turn the next bend.

"Rainbow..."

Eyes slowly begin to close.

"Dash..."

Trying to keep my eyes open...

"Dyson...?"

Her voice makes me stop dead in my tracks.

"Dash?"

I look all around me, searching for her, yet I don't see her.

"To your right, doofus," she scoffs.

I look to my right to see her eyes glaring at me and her hooves crossed.

I approach her and say, "Dash... I be so--"

"Yeah, you're sorry, I know," she interrupts while letting her wing flutter freely. "I've been waiting."

I let my head hang while my smile falls to a frown. "Yeah..." Her glare that she wears stings.

I hear her sigh, and her voice become soft. "Are you still hungry?"

I look at her and nod. "But I ain't hungry for you."

"Oh?" she says with a brow raise. "And what makes you say that?"

I step away from her and look at the path in front of us. "See this here gorge? We gotta be gettin' close to the end."

She nods. "That does sound awesome, but how does that relate to trying to eat me?"

"That be it. I don't wanna eat ya ever. I was bein' blinded by my hunger. He don't like me for doin' that to him."

As if on cue, my stomach lets out a loud, long growl.

"Your stomach just growled."

I nod. "It been hollerin' since you left."

She steps a bit closer to me. "So you're not hungry because of me?"

I put my arm around her, gently. I see her grimace as I do this, but she doesn't move away. I smile, knowing that she's okay with my arm laying limp around her neck, and say, "Nope. Ya not my type."

She gives me a gentle smile, one that soothes my mind. "I'm glad you're back..." She says before leaning against the gorge's wall. "So where next?"

I sigh. "We can only go forward from here."

She pushes away from the wall and growls. "Then let's go already! I'm ready to go home and take a nice long nap..."

I let out the happiest chuckle I could. She rolls her eyes at me, but I know that she knows I'm joking around. We all need a long sleep when we leave this place. The gorge has taken our energy away, and it has changed how I, and probably her too, think. We're all thinking of what could be, but we need to focus on the now. We're still not free, we're still taken by its grasp, and we're still barely making it by. Soon we'll be walking carcasses that haunt the countryside. That is, if we ever find the exit to this place.

As we walk forward, I keep my arm over her, but I don't pull her close. I think her and I still need some distance after what I caused. I don't want to get her angry at me.

Turning around another bend, we stop and gasp. In front of us are holes jut from the walls of the gorge, and one in particular has a giant, red-scaled and purple-spiked eel feasting upon its breakfast. He turns to us momentarily and smiles, which lets feathers of a bird float gently from his mouth. He chews and smirks at us, before dropping the remains of his meal on the ground.

"Dash...?"

Her only good wing is stretched out wide. Her eyes are wide in surprise. Her lips quiver at the sight. And then, there is nothing but a blank stare. Without hesitation, she turns to me and says, "Stay by me."

Her tone of voice sounded unsure of what was to come, but I didn't have to think twice in nodding. We are going to get out of here, even if that meant facing hundreds of these hungry eels. We aren't just hungry, we're thirsty for freedom.

And that is worth more than any bite of food right now.